Infinitely
by Astraskies
Summary: Written for Day 4 of USUK Sweethearts Week 2015. Alfred and Arthur are sophomores, and best friends. They both have gigantic crushes on the other, and each is oblivious to the other's feelings towards them. Also, Alfred likes to ponder the meaning of a human life in the limitless universe.


**Author's Note: Shameless referencing to The Perks of Being a Wallflower takes place at the end of this fic. P.S. Sorry if I'm inaccurate ****about the schooling system in this fic; I don't know much about the American schooling system past grades, and SAT's, and such.**

* * *

It was another meaningless day, of being an average human, on a relatively tiny planet, in a standard galaxy, in the fathomless depths of the limitless universe.

Alfred was bored. Sitting here in class, he had nothing much to do. Sure, he should be paying attention to the teachers, but what they were talking about was child's play compared to the stuff that he had already learnt and found fine to do. Physics had always been an easy subject for him - all three sciences, really (though biology had the nagging habit of being annoying at inappropriate times).

The only entertainment he'd had was to sneakily glance at the British exchange student, who was unbelievably hot. Seriously: Alfred was pretty sure the guy had made a deal with the devil or something to get a face that appealing; and an arse like that was a commendable feature on any human being.

Said British exchange student happened to be Alfred's best friend, so that made things a tad awkward for Alfred whenever they hung out. Luckily, Arthur had no clue about Alfred's massive crush on him, and that was probably for the best. Also, Arthur had never mentioned demon deals of any sort to him so Alfred had garnered that he was just naturally really, really handsome, which was totally unfair.

Arthur had joined the school at the start of Freshman year, and, for the first couple of weeks, everybody had cooed over his accent, and tried to get the British boy to become friends with them, or join this certain club, or that certain society. However, it soon became obvious to them that Arthur was uninterested, and tended to get a tad prickly when bothered too often. It put some people off from talking to the Brit, but not Alfred, who was relentless and had made it his goal to get to know the slightly introverted British boy. Fast forward a year and a half, and the two were best friends, no matter how much Arthur complained about Alfred.

Anyway, Alfred couldn't exactly stare at Arthur anymore since Arthur had left the room just under a minute ago to go to the toilet, and he wasn't back yet. And so, Alfred was bored. It sucked that he didn't sit next to Arthur in this lesson, even though they had it together, though it did admittedly make his sly staring a lot easier. They didn't sit together in Physics, because Arthur wasn't the best at science, and opted to sit closer to the front so that he could focus more in order to raise his grades.

Luckily, they had the next lesson, English, together as well, and they sat next to each other in that. English was something Arthur excelled at, while Alfred didn't really see it's appeal. Arthur took AP English, AP History, and AP Maths; Alfred took AP Science and AP Maths. People would've expected Arthur to not be good at maths either, since he didn't do exceedingly well in science, and most people linked those subjects together, but Arthur was a total whizz-kid when it came to maths. He was arguably better than Alfred himself, and Alfred was no dimwit when it came to maths; quite the opposite, actually. Alfred was glad for it though; it meant he got to share another lesson with Arthur.

Alfred had taken to staring out the window at the cloudy sky when he heard the door to the classroom open, and turned his head to see Arthur walk in. Arthur sat down at his table, picking up his pen, and immediately began copying down the notes on the whiteboard that the teacher had written whilst he was in the loo. Alfred, on the other hand, began carefully sneaking glances at Arthur while pretending to do his work.

At the end of the lesson, while they were packing up, the Physics teacher called out towards Arthur, "Ah, Mr Kirkland, if you could stay behind a moment after everybody has left." Alfred raised an eyebrow at Arthur, who shrugged, his (unusually large, as Alfred had noted when they had first met) eyebrows drawn in confusion. Alfred left the room with the rest of the students as Arthur stayed inside, but unlike everybody else, he waited outside the closed classroom for his best friend as the others headed to their next period.

After a few minutes, Arthur exited the classroom, with a slightly downcast expression on his face. Concerned, Alfred asked his best friend, "What's up? Why'd you get kept in?" Arthur groaned listlessly, then told Alfred, "To tell me that I've been falling behind in Physics, again, and that I need to get a tutor because he doesn't want my marks to suffer more. Bugger it all to hell, I swear, no matter how much I try, and study, I can never understand this stupid subject! And now I need to get a fucking tutor."

However, as soon as Alfred had heard the fact that Arthur needed a tutor in Physics, an idea had formed in his mind.

"Hey, I could tutor you!" he told Arthur with excitement.

Arthur stared at him. "What?"

"I could tutor you," Alfred repeated. "I'm good at science; I ace my AP classes. Plus, you have to admit it'd be a lot more fun for you if you could do it with somebody who you already know and can stand!" He added brightly.

"Who said I could stand you?" Arthur grumbled, but continued, "But it's better than having some random person I don't know tutor me, I guess. Well then, that's settled, isn't it?"

Grinning, Alfred exclaimed, "Yeah, it is! We'll arrange the times and stuff after school! Right now, we'd better hurry, or we're gonna be late for English!"

Arthur began to reprimand him on his grammar ("It's going to, not 'gonna, you berk!"), but before he could get far with it, Alfred had already grabbed his hand and was racing down the corridors to English, dragging a blushing, annoyed Arthur with him.

* * *

In English, they were reading and reviewing Macbeth. This was easy for Arthur, since he had read the play years ago, and was a Shakespeare enthusiast. Alfred, however, found it much harder to focus, and so Arthur spent most of the lesson helping Alfred with his work since he'd finished his before most of the class had barely even started. As Arthur was explaining the significance of the three witches, and their appearances in the play, Alfred found himself enthralled by Arthur's quiet voice (since they weren't allowed to be too loud - the rest of the class was working) and lovely accent as he talked about something he loved. He tried to pay attention too, so that Arthur wouldn't get on his case about it later.

English passed by quickly, and it was their last lesson of the day, since they'd had lunch before Physics, and so, Arthur and Alfred made their way out of the building, towards the school gates. "So..when do you want to start this tutoring thing?" Alfred asked, looking towards Arthur. "Preferably tonight, actually. I'd like to get this done as soon as possi-" Arthur was interrupted as a cheery looking redheaded girl almost barged into him.

"What the-?!" He exclaimed, startled. The girl glanced over at him.

"Oh, sorry," she said offhandedly, not looking like she was sorry at all. "Alfred! There you are!"

"Er-what?" Was Alfred's perplexed reply.

"You said you'd help the drama club rehearse today! Now, come on!" She fluttered her eyelashes at him, and Arthur wanted to step between the two, and get that fake bitch away from Alfred. It was obvious she was trying to flirt with Alfred, and Arthur knew that she only wanted to get with him so that she could use his popularity to her advantage, and brag about it later.

Shooting an apologetic look towards Arthur, Alfred said to him, "I'm really sorry. I can tutor you some other day?" Arthur would have gaped at him, if he hadn't been able to control his expression. He couldn't believe Alfred was choosing that random girl, over him, his best friend. Though, if it was up to Arthur, he'd like to be more that just best friends with Alfred.

"Never mind," he said coldly. "I'm sure I can manage on my own," and he turned away and stalked off.

Alfred watched the retreating back of his best friend as his heart sunk into his stomach.

"Arthur, wait!" He called, but the girl said,

"Come on, we can't be late!" And grabbed his hand, dragging him off. And as he craned his neck to look behind him, he saw that Arthur hadn't waited anyway.

* * *

The next day, Alfred and Arthur barely got to talk to each other, since they had no lessons together, and during lunch and after school, Alfred was plagued by girls flirting with him. Since he didn't want to be rude, he tried to let them down gently, (he did find girls attractive - he was bi, not gay - but the only person he truly had eyes for was Arthur) but they either didn't get the hint, or didn't care.

The rest of the week continued like this, and by Friday afternoon, when Alfred had finally managed to get away from the girls, Arthur was refusing to talk to him. "Artie? Come on! Why are you ignoring me? Dude!" Alfred pestered Arthur. "Arrrtiiieeeee! Stoooop! Stop ignoring me! I haven't even done anything!" Alfred whined. He didn't know why Arthur was mad at him, but he still wanted to fix it and be able to talk to his best friend (and secret crush) again.

Arthur couldn't take it anymore. Alfred had ignored him in favour of those girls the entire week, and now he was whining and acting like a child. Worst of all, the bloody twerp was acting like he didn't even know what was wrong.

"Alfred, could you bloody belt up already?!" Arthur screeched as he halted walking.

Finally, Alfred shut up."Hey, you're not ignoring me anymore!"

Arthur felt like ignoring the wretched boy all over again.

But Alfred wasn't finished. "Why were you ignoring me, anyway?"

Arthur lost it. "I? I was ignoring you?! You have some nerve to say that after you ignore me the entire week to go prance around with those bints!" Alfred gaped at him.

"Wait, what?"

"I thought I was supposed to be your best friend, but no, it seems that you honestly couldn't care less! I guess I should've seen it coming! I mean, who'd hang out with the annoying, ugly loner when they could hang out with a group of pretty girls?" By this point, Arthur was red in the face, breathing heavily as he finished his tirade of shouting, his eyes full of hurt and anger.

Alfred was confused, and agonised as he stared at his best friend in shock. At least, he hoped they would still be best friends after this. After a second or so, he pulled himself out of shock, and started tripping over his words as he hurriedly tried to explain and set things right with Arthur.

"W-what? No! I wasn't choosing the girls over you- I'd never do that! Of course I want to hang out with you! You're my best friend!" However, that only seemed to infuriate Arthur more.

"Best friend! I'm so sick of that. Why can't you see that I don't want to just be your best friend?" Arthur took a few deep breaths, and jolted as the meaning of what he had just said sunk in. "But then, you'd never return my feelings, would you?" He glanced at Alfred with a self-deprecating laugh, and sad eyes. He'd taken the leap, and he couldn't go back now.

Throughout all of Arthur's confession, Alfred just stood there, until he managed to form an extremely eloquent sentence.

"Uh...what." Until his brain actually processed the words. "Wait, you like me?!" He exclaimed at Arthur.

Staring at the ground, Arthur muttered a word that would potentially change Alfred's life. "Yes." Then, he lifted his head up to face Alfred.

If humans were capable of spontaneously combusting due to emotional overload/general mindfuckery, Alfred probably would have, at that moment. But since that couldn't actually happen, he just sort of stared and gaped at Arthur for a second before walking to him, putting his hands on Arthur's shoulders, and shouting, "I LIKE YOU TOO, YOU DUMBFUCK! I have for the longest time!"

This time, it was Arthur's turn to freeze and gape. "What?" He asked intelligently.

Alfred took his hands off Arthur's shoulders, but continued to maintain close distance to the other teenager.

"I've had a crush on you since forever, and this entire time I though you would never like me in that way, and just- ugh!" Alfred cried, and Arthur blushed in embarrassment.

They were both silent for a few moments, before Arthur smiled slightly at Alfred. "We've both been quite oblivious, haven't we?" He chuckled slightly.

"No shit," Alfred said, calming down from his little emotional burst.

Arthur began to lean in, and Alfred was pretty sure he was about to do something that Alfred had been dreaming of doing forever. He gave Alfred a chaste kiss on the lips, but before Alfred could pull him back for more, Alfred shook his head and stepped away.

"We're still in the middle of a school corridor. Plus, you have to tutor me tonight - you haven't for the entire week, and as much as I'd love to continue, I'd rather do it someplace more private once we've caught up on my studying."

Alfred reluctantly agreed. "We're going to your place, right?"

"Indeed," And at that moment, Arthur smiled fondly, a smile that was reserved for Alfred only.

"We should get going." He laced his fingers with Alfred's and together, they walked out of the school, holding hands, smiles on both their faces.

* * *

Alfred had always thought about how irrelevant a single human life was, in comparison with the size of the universe. Now, he'd realised that everything was relative. Sure, in comparison to the universe, a single human life on some planet in a pretty unremarkable galaxy wasn't much, but to someone on that planet, it could be everything.

In that moment, hand in hand with Arthur, Alfred felt infinite.


End file.
